About Me (Summary)

I graduated with a Ph.D. degree from the Biological Systems Engineering Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London in March 2010. Since graduation, I have been working as a post-doctoral researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
During my PhD pursuit, I worked on skeletal and cardiac tissue engineering using embryonic stem cells (ESCs). With an aim to transfer laboratory-based practices to the clinic, I optimized 3D ESC culture conditions with a hydrogel encapsulation technique, and developed a perfused bioreactor suited for 3D tissue culture with a continuous supply of all necessary nutrients under a computer-controlled system.
In my post-doctoral period, as a leader of the stem cell engineering subgroup in Dr. Khademhosseini’s lab at Harvard Medical School, I was involved in many projects related to the regulation of ESC differentiation via controlling stem cell microenvironments. In particular, a hydrogel microwell array was developed as an ESC culture platform, enabling control over embryoid body (EB) size, and this platform demonstrated a differential lineage commitment towards cardiogenic or vasculogenic lineage depending on the size of EBs. I studied the underlying biology of size-mediated differential development of EB differentiation by investigating a series of developmental events such as epiblast, primitive streak, and mesendoderm formations. From my studies, a developmental mechanism of differentiation in the EBs of different sizes was proposed in a research article.

Experience

Research Scientist

Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)

2004 -
2005

Micro-actuator Development Using Cardiomyocytes for Novel Design of Micro-Robot

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Harvard University

2010 -
Present

Stem Cell Engineering for Tissue Engineering Purposes

Education

My Statement

As I have plunged myself into the field of tissue engineering with an engineering background, my approaches to controlling cellular behaviors have mostly resided in the modulation of physical cues in cell culture to mimic in vivo microenvironments for respective research purposes. My research goal lies in controlling lineage specific differentiation of stem cells, which will aid in vitro generation of functional transplantable tissues. Further, my approaches of stem cell-based tissue engineering are supported by investigating and understanding fundamental mechanisms of stem cell/developmental biology, thus being capable of extending to a wide range of projects.

Honors and Awards

 “Reward for Intellectual Property (IP)”, PhD studentship from MedCell Bioscience Ltd, Cambridge, UK, 2006 – 2009
 “KSEAUK Conference Travel Award 2008”, Sponsorship for Korean students in the UK to attend conferences in the abroad countries from The Korean Scientists and Engineers Association in the UK (KSEAUK), May 2008
 “The Graduate Studies Abroad Program by the Korea Research Foundation (KRF)”, Scholarship award of financial support for PhD students from South Korea Government, 2005 – 2007
 “Student’s Poster Award” for the achievement of young investigators in Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials, the 13th Annual meeting of the Korean Society for Biomaterials, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul, Korea, August 2004
 “Exemption of Full Tuition Fee” Scholarship award for BEng students graded in top 3% from Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hongik University, Seoul, Korea, 1999 – 2002